Four years ago, President Obama and former Secretary of State Clinton called for the elevation of development as a key part of America’s national security and foreign policy. They set forth a vision of an empowered and robust Agency that could lead the world in solving the greatest development challenges of our time and, ultimately, meet the President’s goal of ending extreme poverty in the next generation.

To meet these expectations and approach our mission with renewed capacity, we undertook an ambitious reform agenda called USAID Forward, an effort to strengthen the Agency by embracing new partnerships, investing in the catalytic role of innovation and demanding a relentless focus on results. Taken together, the reforms have formed the foundation of a new model for development; one that can represent the best of American ideals abroad, while advancing the security and prosperity of Americans at home.

Last year, we released the first ever USAID Forward Progress report and released the underlying data that informed our scorecard of indicators. Now, in line with our commitment to transparency, we are releasing a second set of data detailing USAID’s results for 2013.

USAID Forward At a Glance

The reforms are focused on three main areas:

Deliver results on a meaningful scale through a strengthened USAID. In order to maximize our impact with every development dollar, we have to pursue a more strategic, focused and results-oriented approach. From strengthening our policy and budget management to enacting a world-class evaluation policy, USAID Forward is helping us to do that.

Promote sustainable development through high-impact partnerships and local solutions. In order to achieve long-term sustainable development, we have to support the institutions, private sector partners and civil society organizations that serve as engines of growth and progress for their own nations. USAID Forward is helping us to do that through new models for public-private partnerships and increased investment directly to partner governments and local organizations.

Identify and scale up innovative, breakthrough solutions to intractable development challenges. At USAID, we have a strong history of partnerships with the scientific community that helped pioneer some of the greatest successes in development to date. USAID Forward is helping us to further this legacy by strengthening our work with scientists, researchers and universities, investing in new technologies to source and scale game-changing solutions, and supporting mobile solutions to dramatically expand opportunity.

Forward Progress

USAID has made significant progress since USAID Forward was first announced in 2010.

We are testing what works and what doesn't through rigorous evaluations and making changes as needed. USAID completed 257 evaluations worldwide in FY 2013 that are helping to make smarter decisions. More than 50 percent of completed evaluations informed the design of new projects or led staff to make mid-course corrections. These reports are available to the public on USAID's Development Experience Clearinghouse at http://dec.usaid.gov/

We are fostering a culture of innovation and using our convening power to test and scale breakthrough innovations to solve development challenges faster and cheaper. USAID’s U.S. Global Development Lab embodies this effort and seeks to increase the application of science, technology, innovation and partnerships to achieve, sustain and extend the Agency’s development impact.

We are building the capacity of countries to lead their own development by working more directly with local governments, the private sector, civil society, and academia. In FY 2010, the global average of mission funds provided to local organizations and governments was 9.6%. Today, it has risen to 17.9%.

We have begun a critical shift in the way we deliver assistance and have substantially strengthened both our Development Credit Authority (DCA) and Public Private Partnerships (PPPs). USAID Missions significantly increased its public-private partnership 1:1 leveraging in 2013 from $383 million last year to $498 million this year. This does not include USAID Washington which would result in the Agency leveraging more than $1 billion in private sector funds.

Our risk assessment tools, such as the Public Financial Management Rapid Assessment Framework (PFMRAF), allow us to determine strengths and weaknesses in host country systems and to develop strong, risk mitigation plans so that every precious taxpayer dollar is used for its intended purpose and is accounted for. To date we have conducted 35 stage one risk assessments.